I am going back to school this summer. I am taking courses in computer programming (C++), Cisco networking and Excel spreadsheet programming. My plan is to complete the courses AND take the certification tests AND get some real kudos that I can add to my resume AND make myself a better candidate for what the people in my exit interview from my last job called a “Dream Job in Computers”.
Last night as I was listening to the lecture in the CISCO Networking Academy Course I (Network Fundamentals), the instructor loaded up the CISCO Packet Tracer program that is a major learning tool for the course. It’s kind of a fun program to play with after you catch onto a few tricks because it lets you drag virtual routers and switches and computers and printers and other things onto a screen and connect them together in different ways. This lets you set up and configure and test a virtual network and get practice making the same choices with the same software interaction you will use setting them up in the real world.
But, when the instructor put a router (represented by a circle) and a couple switches (represented by rectangular boxes) and a couple computers on the screen and connected them with lines representing the different types of Ethernet connections, I was struck by the resemblance to the Tinker Toys that I used to play with as a kid growing up in Oklahoma.
I love putting things together!
Tinker Toys were fun because they came with a little folder with pictures you could try to put them together to match, but you could go on to fit them together in innumerable ways to represent almost anything you could imagine. And, then you could play with them!!!
So, you weren’t stuck pushing the same buttons to get the same few sounds or actions that you get playing with a lot of today’s technologically more sophisticated toys.
But then we got into trying to interact with them. And, this required entering the correct sequence of commands with (almost) the right spelling and syntax (if you get enough of it right you can press the TAB key to fill in the correct spelling for the rest). And, we were trying to follow and replicate that on our computers and I was having trouble reading the commands in the tiny font on the screen projection from the DOS command window on the instructor’s computer. I missed a key step and had to just watch and listen for a while.
Then, the instructor got into a discussion with another student about the pros and cons of doing it in this rather intuitive way that he was using versus the carefully set out instructions in the exercises you can download from the CISCO website.
And, I was reminded of the Betsy McCall cutout dolls that my sisters Ray and Cassie and I used to look forward to cutting out and playing with each month when our mother got the next issue of McCall’s magazine that she subscribed to.
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| Betsy McCall goes to School |
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| Betsy McCall goes shopping |
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| Here's Betsy McCall |
These were our favorite part of the magazine and we would eagerly look for the page in the back where we could cut them out and play with them. They were a bit tricky to cut out, especially the hats with a little line that you had to cut just right so that the hat would fit on Betsy’s head to complete her outfit!
And, you could put them together in different combinations to see what they would look like.
Occasionally there would be one with a boy doll in it (I think his name was Buster) and our brother could cut him out and play with us.
where I created one of my avatars:
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| Joni's Second Avatar |
And, of course, there are more sophisticated versions like IMVU
where you can put together a huge variety of virtual creations (and spend lots of $$$ buying virtual goodies for them). And then you can show them off to your online friends as you chat and do whatever.
But, this brings me back to the original theme of how do we learn? With very basic toys like alphabet blocks, you can move and arrange them pretty much however you want. But, when you move on to more sophisticated toys like cutout dolls, you need some careful instruction (at least at first) and practice with the scissors to learn how to cut them out and have fun. And, this is good basic training for the more sophisticated operation of cutting out patterns and fabric to make real clothing like blouses and skirts. And, those require more careful and detailed instructions to follow.
And with really sophisticated toys like computers and routers, you have to be very careful and specific with the instructions you give them, or bad things can happen.
And the problem a lot of us in class were having was that we weren’t getting or couldn’t see those detailed instructions on how to get started and get the system to respond to us and so we never got to the intuitive stage of putting them together and trying them out that the instructor was trying to use.
So, it’s not really an issue of one or the other, as the teacher and student were discussing. It has to be both instructions and play.
So, please tell me what you think. Are cutout dolls good training for computer programmers?
Joni
